In Makati, the poor of Guatemala street know nothing of the city’s wealth

Makati, a wealthy city

It was in March 2009 when it was announced that Makati City earmarked P287,850,000 ($6.85 million) for various infrastructure projects.

“We have earmarked enough funds this year for infrastructure projects primarily aimed at bringing quality public services closer to the people – our residents, investors, visitors, and transient workers. We believe access to modern facilities is essential to sustaining healthy economic growth in the country’s premier urban center,” Binay said in a statement released at the time.

Among the major infrastructure projects slated that year were the construction of the four-storey Cembo Elementary School , Valenzuela Multi-Purpose Hall, and the San Isidro Community Complex. Other projects were for a four- storey Bangkal Health Center , and multi-level parking in various barangays of Makati . According to the residents of Guatemala, the Makati City Engineers Office told them that for the sports complex in San Isidro, there was a fund amounting to P100 million ($2.38 million).

In the meantime, it was stated in a report posted on Yahoo! News Philippines that residents of Makati City get the best perks as per findings of the National Statistical Coordinating Board (NSCB).

According to the NSCB’s monthly “Statistically Speaking” report, Makati City spent the most on education and health among all Philippine cities in 2007 to 2009. It was reported that on the average, the city spent around P11,913 ($ 283) for every resident, or around P6.37 billion ($ 151.6 million) a year. It also spent some P2,541 ($61) on “Education, Culture & Sports/Manpower Development” for every resident–around P1.35 billion ($23.8 million) –each year. When it came to matters of “Health, Nutrition & Population Control” , P1,502 ($ 36) was spent on each resident, or around P804 million ($ 19.1 million) a year.

In a speech to the Rotary Club Makati earlier in May, Binay said that as of December 2011, Makati’s total revenue collections stood at P11 billion ($261.09 million), surpassing the 2010 total collections of over P9.8 billion ($214 million) by 10 percent. The bulk of collections came from business licenses, followed by real property tax.

Violence of the demolition teams

Earlier this year, one of the more violent demolition operations took place in the Silverio Compound in Parañaque. On April 23, members of the Philippine National Police (PNP) shot and fired at residents of the compound who were then actively resisting the destruction of their houses. Residents put up barricades to block all entry points to the community after the first wave of demolition that took place the previous month, March 7.

It has been estimated that the entire compound housed at least 28,000 residents, but only around 200 were organized under Kadamay-NCR. The disputed 9.2-hectare land was targeted for the construction of a condominium.

Paulo Quizon, deputy secretary-general of the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (NCR) said the violence was instigated by the police, but it would not have worsened if the entire community was organized.

“It’s the exact opposite of what the police and the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) say: organizers help urban poor communities keep criminal elements and saboteurs out and ensure that violence during demolitions are kept to a minimum if not completely prevented. The violence in Silverio was provoked: we will always assert that the urban poor have a right to defend their homes, and it was the PNP who had to weapons to create the greatest damage and harm,” he said.

True enough, a 19-year old, Arnel Gloria was shot to death during the PNP’s attempts to demolish the community while scores were left wounded, some by bullets fired indiscriminately by the police.

Quizon said that there was nothing complicated about what the urban poor want.

“They want the same as all ordinary, hardworking people do: they want to live in decency and with dignity. They want to keep their families and loved ones safe, protected from the elements. They want homes they can call their own. These are not high and mighty dreams – they are actually rights; they have the right to have their own houses. More than this, it is something that they should demand for the government. It is always the responsibility of the government to ensure that its citizens have roofs over their heads; but as things stand, the Benigno Aquino III administration, like its predecessors, care nothing for the urban poor,” he said.

The Bayan-NCR leader said that the urban poor do not want anyone’s pity or concern. “What they want is to be left alone with the houses they built with their own hands and hard work. They have gotten used to being ignored by the government and occasionally remembered only during election season. They are far from being ignorant about how the kind of government we have and where they rank in its priorities. Because the government chooses deliberately to neglect them and ignore their rights when they are not being violated, the best that the government can do is to leave the urban poor alone,” he said.

In a related development, Bayan national secretary-general Renato Reyes reacted to President Aquino’s recent statement blaming the urban poor for the constant floods in the Metropolis. The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) said the government will forcibly relocate around 195,000 families from waterways in Metro Manila and around Laguna de Bay as a move to mitigate flooding in the surrounding areas. DPWH secretary Rogelio Singson after presenting a P352 billion ($ 8.38 billion flood control and mitigation masterplan to Aquino told the media that the president said if needed, they should “blast the houses” of the poor.

“Government wants to forcibly evict 195,000 families living in waterways. Where and how will government relocate them? Examining next year’s housing budget may give us an idea. The housing budget increased by 255 percent, now at P21.75 billion ($523 million) but that’s because some P5 billion ($ 119 million)has been allotted for the housing of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the PNP. So the budget for the urban poor will be around P16 billion ($380 million). Divide that by 195,000 families government wants to evict and you have P82,000 ($1,952) per family for relocation and housing. Is that enough?,” Reyes said.

Guatemala Street in the daytime

In the daytime, Guatemala St. looks far from peaceful. One is struck by images of barely controlled chaos: rotting wooden planks and rusted sheets of iron comprise the roofs of the houses that stand three-storeys high. They remind one of the roosting shelters of pigeons. The houses rest against each each other in a unwieldy, insecure embrace, as if anytime they could fall and disintegrate.

Clotheslines are choked with threadbare clothes drying in the breeze. The pavement is strewn with trash, some made of plastic, others of paper, the rest of rotting food stuff like old vegetable peelings, chicken bones, the remains of a noontime meal. Finally, to say that there is a stench in the air is to make an understatement: the gutters are filled with fish offal and excrement, some of them human.

This is the community that people like Nanay Luz are fighting for. This is where they bore their children and where they try to raise them in hopes and dreams that one day, they will be able to leave for a better place. If offered a better house – with a yard, perhaps; or a space where they can plant flowers — they would move and willingly if they had the money, the resources for it. The Makati City government, however, offers them only the alternative of a plot of land where wild grass grows; where the Nanay Luz and her family will be forced to live under a makeshift tent or survive like evacuees from floods in the grounds of nearby public schools.

“They call us dirty, they call us eyesores, but we do not disturb the rest of Makati. We are hidden away here, behind warehouses, behind big office buildings. We try to keep clean as best as we can, but we can only do so much because we are poor and most of us cannot afford to pay for steady water supplies or legal electricity lines. We have heard that the Makati City fathers want to make Makati a premier city; we wish that it would do so without driving out the poor like us. We are people, too, and we are willing to do our share if only the government would help us a little instead of mostly ignoring us,” she said.

The hours in Guatemala St. pass slowly, but these days, every hour is precious because it marks another hour when the residents remain house-owners. This is all they want, and even if in reality they need and deserve more as citizens and voters of one of the country’s most established financial and business districts, they do not demand anything else.